Spanish Intercept N. Korea Missiles

December 11, 2002|By Thomas E. Ricks and Peter Slevin The Washington Post and Information from The New York Times was used to supplement this report.

WASHINGTON — A North Korean-crewed ship carrying 12 disassembled Scud missiles bound for Yemen has been boarded and seized by Spanish and U.S. military forces in the Arabian Sea, Pentagon and administration officials said Tuesday.

U.S. intelligence satellites and Navy ships had been tracking the ship, named the So San, since it left North Korea during the middle of last month, the officials said. It was boarded early Monday about 600 miles southeast of Yemen -- far out to sea and so unquestionably in international waters, a U.S. official said.

The decision to take over the ship was approved "at the highest levels of the administration," the official said.

Evidence of a North Korean effort to ship ballistic missiles to the Middle East during a tense standoff between Iraq and the United States over weapons and missiles can only deepen the strain on the already tense relationship between Washington and Pyongyang. It has been barely two months since the North Korean government admitted -- under sharp American questioning -- that it maintains a secret nuclear weapons program in defiance of international agreements.

The incident also may chill U.S. relations with Yemen, which backed Iraq during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and then was the site of an October 2000 attack on a U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Cole, that killed 17 American sailors.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, Yemen has been an eager partner in the U.S.-led global war on terrorism. U.S. Special Forces trainers began operating there this year to improve Yemeni anti-terrorist capabilities. And just last month, when the United States conducted an air strike against suspected terrorists in Yemen using an unmanned Predator drone aircraft firing Hellfire missiles, the Yemeni government quickly made it known that it had agreed to the action.

"The Yemeni government will be hugely embarrassed by this," an intelligence official said.

Yemen apparently bought the missiles to upgrade the handful of aging Scuds that it already possesses, the U.S. intelligence official said. The Yemeni government repeatedly has promised not to purchase missiles or parts in recent months, another official said, but "we keep catching them with their hand in the cookie jar."

Late Tuesday, American intelligence officials said there was no clear link between al-Qaida or other terrorist groups and the North Korean ship.

The fact that news of the action leaked in Washington may also create friction between the United States and Spain, whose forces led the seizure. "This is an extremely hot potato," a Defense Department official said. "I think the Spanish would have preferred that it come out of Spain."

The incident began around dawn, local time, on Monday, when two Spanish navy ships, the Navarra and the Patino, signaled the freighter to stop. When the ship, sailing under a Cambodian flag but believed to be owned by North Korea, tried to evade capture, the Spanish ships fired warning shots across its bow. When it continued to try to escape, Spanish special forces troops conducted a hostile boarding by helicopter.

The crew of about 20 people was then put under guard and the ship was searched. It quickly became apparent that there were problems with the legal status of the ship, officials said, noting that its original name had been painted over to conceal its North Korean origin, and its registry papers weren't in order. Also, a quick search uncovered major discrepancies between the ship's manifest, which listed a cargo of 40,000 sacks of cement, and the actual load aboard the ship. The Spanish soldiers opened about 20 large containers partially hidden by the cement and found missile parts. They then called in U.S. military experts in handling explosives.

The USS Nassau, which usually carries Marines, helicopters and Harrier jump-jets, is standing by the freighter, which remains about 600 miles off the Yemeni coast, an official said. Additional searches are under way, he said.

Information from The New York Times was used to supplement this report.